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NEW DELHI: Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has urged Centre to provide more testing kits and said that the government should focus on containment of the virus by extensive testing, medical treatment to the infected persons, and substantial enhancement of the capacity, infrastructure and human resources to fight the epidemic.

The party's highest decision making body met through video conferencing on Thursday suggested that the government must immediately come out "financial action plan 2'', the aim of which must be help those affected in the current lockdown.

"The CWC demands that the government should immediately appoint an Economic Task Force consisting of world renowned economists to suggest three plans: an emergency plan within one week; a short to medium term plan within one month; and a medium to long term plan within three months in order to protect and revive the economy," the CWC statement read out by AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said.

It said the government should focus on livelihood support to the poor people, especially daily wage earners, migrant workers, casual and temporary workers, laid-off workers, self-employed people, farmers, tenant farmers and landless agricultural workers.

Besides, it said it has to ensure the maintenance of supply of goods and services so that people locked down in their homes can access their daily household need items.

AICC chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "On containment and treatment, the government has erred in adopting a strategy of limited testing. A lockdown or any other kind of restrictions is futile unless it is accompanied by extensive testing."

"The flawed strategy must be revised and testing must be scaled up urgently," he said.

Smt. Sonia Gandhi in CWC meeting-:

“#COVID doesn’t differentiate between political ideology, religion, caste or gender. The choices we make today will have direct impact on our families, neighbour, communities and our Nation.” pic.twitter.com/YGYjbATwGB

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Visakhapatnam police have cracked the mysterious death of 22-year-old woman Divya in Akkayyapalem on Saturday. As the investigation unearthed, Divya was tortured and killed by none other than her house owner Vasantha. The police also found out that the cold-blooded murder was a fallout of differences between the two in sharing money earned from anti-social activities. Divya's post-mortem report revealed 33 injury marks on her body.